Funding Roundup for the month of August; Total Investments Exceed INR 300 Crores!

Friday August 31, 2012 , 3 min Read

The month of August comes to an end but it definitely has seen some interesting investment moves in the startup ecosystem. We thought we should wrap up the best of those moments this month and bring it to you as a power-packed funding roundup.

To begin with, Bangalore based Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain Ammi’s Biryani raised INR 40 Crore from SAIF Partners. This is an interesting move for a Venture Fund that has previously invested in some big names like MakeMyTrip, Network 18, Taj Hotels & Resorts, JustDial etc.

(Read the complete Ammi Briyani story)

IndoUs Venture Partners’ investment portfolio includes names in the ecommerce space like SnapDeal, Zivame and Myntra. Now joining that list is UrbanLadder. UrbanLadder, an online furniture store has raised funding from IndoUs Venture Partners.

In another move, keeping with its current trend of investments in the technology space, India Innovation Fund has invested in IIT Bombay research spin-off, iKen Solutions. iKen Solutions is an IIT Bombay research spin-off specializing in Artificial Intelligence based Consumer Analytics that enables extremely personalized user experiences.

Accel Partners with its special interest in the space of education has invested INR 2.7 crores in Mind Edutainment, a Delhi based education startup.

Mumbai Based RedQuanta Raises Funding Round Led by India Quotient, Blume Ventures and India Venture Partners. RedQuanta is in the business of building customer intelligence through its tech-enabled crowdsourcing based mystery shopping platform. The amount of funding is undisclosed.

Mumbai Based NaturalMantra Raises a Funding Round from Freemont Partners. Natural Mantra, a lifestyle destination for eco-conscious shoppers, has raised an undisclosed amount from Freemont Partners, a platform for innovative ideas which provides seed funding of upto INR 50 lakhs. The funds shall be used to scale.

Indian Angel Network and India Innovation Fund Invests in Healthcare Startup, Consure. Consure Medical has developed a novel, disruptive technology that will benefit more than 16 million patients in India and over 100 million patients worldwide. The company competes in the $7 Billion fecal incontinence market with a differentiated product that has patent protection in all key geographies. It is the first startup emanating from the Stanford-India Biodesign program.

In a second investment this month, Accel Partners invested INR 100 crore in BookMyShow.com. As a part of this transaction, Accel will invest INR 100 crore through a primary infusion of capital and secondary sale of shares from existing investors.

In an acquisition deal, FashionAndYou acquired UrbanTouch (previously funded by Accel) for $30 Million. As part of the deal Abhishek Goyal will join Fashionandyou.com as the new CEO, the place which was recently vacated by Pearl Uppal. Fashionandyou.com and Urbantouch.com will co-exist as independent identities and will focus on emerging as a leading lifestyle e-commerce portals operating across persistent and flash sales model.

Bangalore Based Online Photography Company Canvera raises $6.5M in Series B from Info Edge. The company had earlier raised funding from Footprint Ventures, DFJ and Mumbai Angels. While the previous VC investors have stayed put, some of the angel investors have exited in the current round, which had a mix of fresh issue of securities and secondary component.

Interestingly, most of the investments in the month of August have been in B2C companies in the online space with about six investments in ecommerce. Ecommerce may be beaten to death now yet it still seems to be seeing enough funds being pumped into the system.

[Many such stories will be written during Techsparks! Block Your Seat!]

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